"I'll race you down the stairs, Amethyst!" yelled Citrine, her blonde hair flowing behind her.
Citrine was one of the only tolerable ghosts, since her face and body weren't dripping and bloody. She had died at an early age from being poisoned, so she wasn't an ugly ghost.
"Unfair!" Amethyst yelled. "You can go through floors!"
She ran down the stairs just as Citrine materialized, floating slowly down from the ceiling.
"Fair enough." Citrine said. "I can't go quickly through that ceiling, with all the crap you've stuffed under the floorboards."
It was true. Amethyst had loosened every single floorboard on her story of the house and had been keeping old toys and games in them whenever her parents tried to sell them.
"Hm."
Pearl was sitting down on the couch beside their cat, Lion. Their little brother, Steven, and their older sister, Garnet, were solving a puzzle.
The other ghosts that usually hung around the house weren't there, luckily. Citrine was the only one there.
"Where's mom and dad?" Amethyst asked, Citrine following her closely.
"Running errands, apparently." Pearl said.
"But I thought I saw two tickets to a horror movie on the fridge, and this morning, they were gone. So I suppose they are there…?" Steven said.
Steven was only 5, but he had an extraordinary vocabulary, thanks to Pearl. Pearl spent most of her time reading fairy tales to him…while Amethyst taught him how to play R-rated video games, which her parents disapproved of (but secretly respected). Garnet was the oldest sibling, and she was the one that taught Steven logic puzzles. He had fun doing Sudoku puzzles and solving picture puzzles. Unlike the twins, Steven and Garnet had been adopted into this family, Steven because his mother had died and his father had no idea how to take care of a little boy. Garnet's backstory was a mystery.
Amethyst laughed at this. "Yeah, I suppose so."
Citrine was still behind her, and she went up to the toddler and tugged on his ear. "You are SO cute, I just wanna- "She kissed him on the cheek, even though he didn't feel anything.
"Cut that out." Amethyst answered.
Citrine retreated and slapped Amethyst hard.
"I can do what I want! He can't even feel anything-unlike you! They can't see ghosts, hon!"
"It's not like I chose this!"
Amethyst looked up, now aware that the whole room was staring at her. "Um…"
"Anyone hungry?" Pearl said, changing the subject before the others could question what was going on. Despite her twin sister's terrible job of hiding her ghost-seeing power, the others still didn't know about either of their powers and she didn't want to risk them knowing.
"I'm FAMISHED." The five-year-old said, putting the last puzzle piece in the correct spot.
"Hehe. Good job." Garnet said, taking out her phone and taking a picture. She texted it to their mother, saying 'Look at what Steven did!'.
The twins went to the kitchen and started making cereal for everyone.
"Ugh, cereal AGAIN?" Steven whined, coming in.
"Sorry, Stevie Wonder, but we have no idea what else to make." Amethyst said, swatting Citrine away before she could grab the bowl of cheerios.
"Can't Garnet make us bacon?" he asked.
"Be happy with what you have. Anyway, don't you remember the last time I tried making bacon?"
"UGHHHH. LAST time." Moaned the twins, exchanging knowing looks.
The last time Garnet had made bacon, she had accidently started a grease fire and the twins were running quickly through the house, knocking stuff over, trying to find the big bag of baking soda. They couldn't FIND the baking soda, and the fire burned their first home down. Their parents weren't pleased, coming home to a charred house. Garnet had been grounded for a year, and she had to promise never to make bacon again without their supervision.
"No, I don't…I wasn't around for that." Steven said.
"Oh right. I keep forgetting you weren't around." Amethyst said.
"That statement made NO sense whatsoever, but whatever." Pearl said.
"Shut it." Amethyst said, pouring the milk on top of Steven's bowl of cereal. "Here you go. After you finish that, we can play Grand Theft Auto!"
Steven jumped high into the air. "YAYYYYY!"
Citrine wandered out of the room, leaving a small trail of glowing blue behind her. Amethyst followed her and ate her bowl of cereal out in the living room in front of the TV.
"Should I turn this on?" asked Citrine, gesturing towards the TV.
"No, Ci, you can't…remember? You are a ghost. You can't touch solid things."
Citrine pouted, "UNFAIR!"
"I don't understand how you aren't used to this yet! You died fifteen years ago!"
Citrine shook out her blonde curls, flinging her blue aura all over the place. "It's just hard. I mean, I don't get to play anything anymore, I can't hug anyone except for you-I can't even eat! Like, what the heck!"
Amethyst hugged her dead friend loosely, smelling violets on her cold skin. "It's okay."
Steven toddled in mid-hug. "Sissy, why are you hugging the air?"
Amethyst's eyes widened in fear. "I'm just being crazy as usual. Silly me." She let go of Citrine, who waved bye and floated back up the stairs.
"Let's play the game now!" smiled Steven, reaching for a game controller.
"Stevie, this is a single-person game, remember? I can only tell you what to do from out here. You play."
Her little brother pouted, but did so anyway.
Amethyst started laughing just as a ghostly audience came into the room, bearing yellow, green, and red auras. She clapped her mouth shut as soon as she saw them and stopped laughing, her eyes wide in fear.
These were the other ghosts that inhabited the house. Among these six were three creepy ghosts: Erudite, Amazonite, and Moss Agate.
Amethyst tried holding her screams back as Erudite floated over to her, both eye sockets gaping wide and a toothless mouth smiling evilly. Moss Agate had no pupils in her eyes, just glowing white orbs. Bloody cuts tore down her sides. Amazonite was hypnotizingly beautiful. She was able to hypnotize anyone with her beauty. Amethyst couldn't help it now. Erudite reached out at her with a cold, dead hand. Amethyst screamed, then blacked out.
Chapter one done! I left y'all at a sorta cliffhanger. I hope you like this so far! Thanks for reading.
-Ace
